


With Your Blessing

by WrathoftheStag



Series: The Supportive Parent Collection [5]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: F/M, Jack and Suzanne bonding, M/M, happens during christmas in madison, jack asking for suzanne's blessing, jack being a sweetheart, what suzanne actually meant when she said "you're not married yet"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:08:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28661481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrathoftheStag/pseuds/WrathoftheStag
Summary: "Y'all aren't marriedyet." Did Suzanne know about Jack's plan to propose when he visited Madison for Christmas? She sure did.  Jack and Suzanne talk about marriage and the future.
Relationships: Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann, Richard "Coach" Bittle/Suzanne Bittle
Series: The Supportive Parent Collection [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/905574
Comments: 23
Kudos: 189





	With Your Blessing

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during [Christmas in Madison](https://www.checkpleasecomic.com/comic/4-14-08). When Suzanne said, "And y'all aren't married yet" she was totally making Jack sweat. Poor guy!

_Prologue_

“I’m glad you brought Jack home.” 

“Oh well, you know how much he loves Madison." 

“No. No, I mean. I'm glad you brought home Jack as your partner.” 

**+++**

“Just keep whisking that, Jack, honey, until it’s thick and glossy. Stiff peaks are what we want,” Suzanne said as she finished the pie crust for the lemon meringue.

“Okay,” Jack replied, putting his biceps and triceps into it.

Suzanne had corralled Jack into the kitchen that afternoon while Bitty and Coach went to the liquor store to get some rum for her famous eggnog to be served at that night’s Christmas party.

“If you can flip the bowl and the peaks don’t move, it’s ready.”

Jack frowned. “Throw it in the air?”

“No, hun, just hold it upside down,” she said with a smile as he nodded and kept whisking.

Suzanne glanced toward the door.

“So, they were just heading to EZ Bottle, which means they won’t be long. Now’s our chance to talk.”

Jack smiled, put down the bowl, and reached into his pocket.

“Here it is,” he said as he pulled out a small black velvet box and gently placed it on the kitchen counter.

Suzanne squeaked and covered her mouth as she jumped up and down. She approached the box.

“May I?”

“Sure,” Jack said. 

Suzanne wiped her hands on her apron, picked up the ring box, and slowly opened it. Inside sat a simple platinum band with a thin gold line running through the center.

“Oh, Jack! It’s beautiful! So elegant,” she said breathlessly. “I can’t believe it’s really going to happen.”

Jack beamed as he smiled broadly. 

_Two Weeks Earlier_

“Rick? You got a big box from Amazon outside, but it was too heavy for me to bring it in with all these bags in my hands,” Suzanne yelled as she came into the house.

She put her grocery bags and the mail she had just fished out of the mailbox down and took off her coat. 

Suzanne had come back from the store with fixins for butter tarts. She wanted to try out the recipe before Jack’s visit. Jack. Jack Zimmermann. Dicky’s _boyfriend_. Suzanne smiled. She wanted to give him a little taste of home since he would be spending the holiday away from his family.

“What’s all the commotion?” Coach said as he came into the living room.

“You got a big ol’ box outside,” Suzanne said and offered her cheek to Coach.

He bypassed her cheek and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

“Hi, sweetpea,” Coach said. 

“Hello, handsome.”

She smiled when he gave her one more peck. 

“Must be that cordless jig saw I ordered,” Coach said. “We’ll see if this one works. I still need to get a new sander, too.”

“Hmm, lord, yes. Can’t have you without a sander, for heaven’s sake,” she teased with a smile as she picked up the mail and looked through it. “Oh.”

“What is it?”

Suzanne held up one envelope that was in the stack of mail.

“It’s from Jack.”

“Holiday card?” Coach asked.

Suzanne shrugged and looked at the white envelope with the Falconers’ logo on it. 

“Maybe? Doesn’t look like one, though.”

She put the letter in her back pocket and took the groceries to the kitchen. Jack was scheduled to come in two weeks, Dicky would be home in one, so maybe it was just a thank you for inviting him.

After putting the groceries away and placing the chicken casserole she had prepared earlier that day in the oven, she sat at the kitchen table and pulled Jack’s letter from her back pocket.

She opened the letter and laughed when she saw it was written on Falconers’ letterhead, which Jack probably took from their offices. 

Jack’s handwriting was long and swoopy.

> _Dear Mrs. Bittle,_
> 
> _I wanted to send you a letter to say thank you for inviting me. An email didn’t seem like enough, and a phone call would make me too nervous. I’m looking forward to spending time with you and Mr. Bittle, and I know Eric is happy we’ll all be together. He told me that I would have some butter tarts to look forward to, so thank you for that as well. I’m also writing because I wanted to talk to you about something very important._
> 
> _When I first started at Samwell, my plan was to prove myself to everyone who'd ever doubted me. I'd work hard alone and show people that I wasn't some has been or never was. Of course, then I met my friends, and they made me see that I didn't have to take that journey on my own. And then I met your son, and I didn’t know what hit me._
> 
> _Although we had a rocky start, he was soon one of my best friends, and then things just grew from there. With Eric, I felt even more supported and loved than I ever could have imagined. He's the kindest and most generous person I've ever met, and everything he does, he does with his entire heart._
> 
> _I wanted to talk to you and Mr. Bittle when I’m out there. I want to ask Eric to marry me with your blessing. I’ll be blunt, I will ask him no matter what, but it would mean so much to me if you were supportive. I plan on proposing after he graduates, and if he’ll have me, I swear I’ll work my whole life to make him feel happy, safe, and so loved._
> 
> _I’ll wait for your response and hope that you’ll be as happy for us as Eric has made me. I want him with me always, and all I want to do is make him happy and be the best possible person I can be for him and me._
> 
> _Sincerely,_
> 
> _Jack L. Zimmermann  
>  _

Suzanne held the letter to her chest and inhaled deeply.

“RICHARD! RICHAAAARDDDD!” 

Coach ran into the kitchen, out of breath, a saw in his hand.

“What’s wrong?! What happened?”

Suzanne, with eyes full of tears, held the letter toward him.

“Our baby’s getting engaged.”

**+**

“You know,” Suzanne said as she returned the ring to Jack, “you could propose here. There’s nothing like a Christmas proposal in front of family.”

Jack laughed softly.

“No, I want to wait until he’s done with school.”

“Good call,” Suzanne said with a smile. “My boy will go into full-blown wedding planning mode if you ask him now—anything to avoid his thesis.”

“You know it,” Jack replied. “And besides, I have it all planned out. I want to do it at Faber.”

Suzanne became misty-eyed. “Oh, Jack, that’s so romantic.”

Jack blushed as Suzanne dabbed at the corner of her eyes. 

“I know Rick was happy to spend the morning with you the other day,” she said. “That was his version of a shovel talk, I guess, bless his heart—taking you on errands.” 

She chuckled softly.

“Never thought I’d meet someone quieter than me.”

The two looked at each other warmly, then Jack put the ring back in his pocket and gave Suzanne the bowl. She put her hand on Jack's and smiled again.

"I know you two will be very happy, Jack."

"Thank you. Me too," he replied.

“All right, let’s finish up this meringue, or else it’ll go bad. There’s nothing worse than a weeping meringue.”

Jack smiled and put on the apron Suzanne handed him.

"What's next?" Jack asked as Suzanne handed him a spatula, and they heard the front door unlock.

**Author's Note:**

> Jack totally asked George for letterhead. 
> 
> "What do you need it for?"
> 
> "I'm writing Bittle’s mom a letter."
> 
> She stared at him for a beat, then laughed and gave him a couple sheets and an envelope. 
> 
> Come and say hello on [Tumblr](https://wrathofthestag.tumblr.com/post/639892671749652480/with-your-blessing).
> 
> All OMGCP characters belong to Ngozi Ukazu. <3


End file.
